Writing Great Tom

T. S. (Thomas Stanley) Matthews (1901-1991) was an American writer and editor who divided his time between the United States and England for many years. His early career as a journalist culminated with a period as editor of TIME magazine. After leaving TIME in 1953, he published a number of books, and was recruited to write the first major biography of T. S. Eliot, Great Tom: Notes Towards the Definition of T. S. Eliot, published by Harper & Row in 1973. He was a wealthy and well-connected man with friends on both sides of the Atlantic. He was able to make use of those connections when he undertook the difficult task of writing about Eliot. In an unusual reversal, he was also known later in life as one of the ex-husbands of American writer Martha Gellhorn, who was herself annoyed to be referred to as the ex-wife of Ernest Hemingway.